The "Show Up, Act" reflects arguments commonly raised that the higher levels of offsite work have degraded customer service. Image: Instantvise/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffIn one of his first actions, as chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., has proposed a bill to return the government to pre-pandemic levels of offsite work, pending a study by each agency of how increased offsite work has affected their missions, including service to the public.
The bill (HR-139) mirrors one Republicans pushed last year in the committee—then called Oversight and Reform—as an alternative to one from the Democratic majority at the time that would have locked in the higher rates of offsite work that agencies continue to use. While the committee rejected that bid and passed the Democratic bill, that bill did not advance any farther.
In introducing what he titled the “Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems,” or Show Up, Act, Comer reflected arguments commonly raised by many Republicans—and some Democrats—that the higher levels of offsite work have degraded customer service, especially at public-facing agencies such as the IRS, VA and SSA.
“President Biden’s unnecessary expansion of telework crippled the ability of departments and agencies to fulfill their responsibilities and created cumbersome backlogs. The federal government exists to serve the American people and these substantial delays for basic services are unacceptable,” he said.
Under the bill, each agency would have to address “any adverse effects” of increased offsite work on customer service; the cost of paying locality pay to employees receiving higher city-based rates even though they were no longer working there; the costs of maintaining under-used office space; and any technology-related issues that prevented employees from being “fully productive.”
It further would require that after returning to pre-pandemic levels, an agency could not increase telework again until OPM certified that the agency had produced a plan meeting certain standards.
Those would include that more offsite work: would have a substantial positive impact on performance of the agency’s mission, including customer service; would substantially lower the agency’s costs for real estate and locality pay; and would not substantially increase costs for costs for secure network capacity, communications tools, and equipment.
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